Short chapter this time because all the action is over and it's time to recuperate and prepare for the next installment.
Chapter 35: Moment's Reprieve:
The Kiln – Prison Yard:
Maleficent was positively livid when Sephiroth's progeny returned to the Kiln without the Infinity Stone. She was so furious that she told the three siblings that they'd outlived their usefulness and ordered them executed. And then they had the gall escape, killing half a dozen Dark Elves on the way out. The loss of Malekith's troops was the only real consolation for today's events. Well, that and Yzma's release from prison in the chaos of the invasion, but Malekith's impending power play was a higher priority. She was walking towards her office to summon her inner circle for a discussion of their recent losses and the rise of this "Legion" when the entire station shook.
As the Mistress of All Evil braced herself against the wall she felt a rare chill of fear as she realized what was going on. They were under attack. Someone, either in the pathetic Coalition or that meddling Legion, had discovered their location and, judging by the increasing frequency of explosions and the sounds of spell and laser fire, had boarded the station intent on either bringing the Hellfire Club's upper echelons to justice or wiping them out. But it was not for herself that she was afraid. Lily was reading in her room while her father cooked dinner. Lily would not understand what was going on, and the shouting, alarms, and shaking would draw her out of her room in curiosity, and then she'd be at risk of being injured or worse, killed, in the crossfire.
I have to get my daughter out of here, Maleficent thought to herself as she frantically teleported upstairs to Lily's room. Grabbing Lily, she teleported up to the communications room and ordered everyone to evacuate the station. While she would have preferred to stand and fight, what little of her military forces remained were still on their way back from the failed invasion of Radiant Garden, while Malekith's fleet was still scouting the Titan's Refuge with Loki and Nebula. As much as it burned Maleficent to admit it, they were sitting ducks right now. Holding their ground in a desperate last stand would only get them all killed and her daughter taken away from her. And that she refused to allow.
She felt a surge of comfort at the familiar "poof" of her husband teleporting into the room.
"Maleficent, babe," Hades greeted calmly. "What's the plan?" He didn't have to ask why she was ordering their cabal to evacuate the abandoned prison complex or why they weren't standing up and fighting back. He knew his wife better than anyone and one thing he learned since he'd met her was that she never did anything without a good reason. If she was ordering the evacuation of their base, it was because she had a plan to regroup and strike back.
"We regroup at Thanos's sanctuary," she replied calmly as she initiated the self-destruct system she'd installed after they'd moved into the facility. "We take stock of our losses, find out as much information about this "Legion" as we can, and then destroy them. They're too big of a threat to us for them to be ignored. They need to be eliminated now before we can have any hope of succeeding in our campaign. We learned that the hard way with Xehanort. We'll scout out their bases and defenses, then we slaughter them all and take back the Infinity Stones."
Hades nodded his head in understanding as he teleported out of the room. He warped all over the former prison making sure everyone in the Inner circle escaped through Dark Corridors to their new base safely. Once everyone had made it out, he poofed away himself. As the smoke faded he found himself standing at the foot of a series of floating metal stairs leading up to a hovering golden throne. Taking Lily in his arms, he watched his wife ascend the steps towards the chair that once belonged to Thanos. When she reached the top of the stairs, Maleficent turned and took her rightful seat on the Mad Titan's throne, directing her gaze first down at her followers, then up towards the stars.
I could get used to a view like this, Maleficent thought to herself as she surveyed the universe above her. She realized now that she had been too hasty in her rush to obtain the Infinity Stones. By neglecting to get proper reconnaissance of potential enemies such as the Legion, she had left herself open to attack. But she always did love the old adage "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger." For she had indeed survived everything the pathetic Daybreak Coalition had been able to throw at her, and emerged from the conflict stronger than ever. This time, she had her priorities straight. She would eliminate all competition, retake the stolen Infinity Stones, retrieve the rest, and then, the universe would be hers.
New York City – Shwarma Restaurant:
Vanitas' story was surprisingly straightforward. Sora was expecting a long convoluted explanation to explain how he got to Earth from Coalition Space. But pursuing the Unchained back to their own base during the attack on Radiant Garden only to be thrown out through a random Corridor of Light was so much easier to understand. Thankfully, Vanitas and his team had managed to steal a few of the Unchained Legion's files before they got kicked out, and one of the documents they'd managed to download was a map of Coalition Space in relation to Earth and the Galactic Federation. Sora was thrilled to finally have a map home. And he couldn't help but let out a chuckle when Vanitas told him that Kairi had hired Captain Amelia to bring her to Earth to get him.
"Looks like I'll have to meet her halfway," the Key bearer commented with a hopeful smile. He'd talked with Stitch the other day about getting him a ride offworld, and Stitch had offered Sora a ride in the spaceship of Stitch's creator, Jumba Jookiba, who was also living on Earth. Jumba had taken it to the garage for maintenance, and it wouldn't be done for just under a week, but at least he had a plan. He wasn't just sitting around waiting for bad guys to fight while he waited for Kairi to come pick him up.
"Don't you mean "we'll" be meeting her half way?" Tony interjected. "And here I thought we were friends." Sora looked at the armored Avenger incredulously while Vanitas just smirked knowingly. "Come on, Sora," he went on. "Did you really think we'd let you just jet off halfway across the universe without us? You may not have been here very long, but you're still part of this team. All for one and one for all, am I right? Where you go, we go." Sora smiled and thanked Tony for the gesture.
"But what if S.H.I.E.L.D. needs you guys here on Earth?" Cloud pointed out, concerned that either the Unchained Legion or the Hellfire Club might take advantage of the absence of Earth's mightiest heroes for their own nefarious purposes.
"Which is why only some of us will be going," Steve answered. "We decided that the founding members of the team will be going with him as ambassadors to the Coalition. The rest of the team will be staying on Earth to keep fighting the good fight and protect Earth. Whenever you need their help while you're here on Earth, you'll have the full support of S.H.I.E.L.D., the Avengers, and the S.A.C.K."
"You really should think of a better acronym for your little secret society, you know," Violet commented with a laugh.
"Nobody's ever really been able to come up with anything that's both catchy and sums up our purpose," Steve admitted shyly, drawing another round of laughter from everyone present. "Anyway," Captain America changed the subject as he addressed Vanitas and his team. "When we head off into space, will all of you be joining us?"
"Actually," Vanitas replied. "I think we'll be staying on Earth for a few weeks. From what we know HYDRA is allied with the Hellfire Club, and Maleficent will likely attempt to take more personal control of the survivors now that the Red Skull is gone. Not to mention the fact that the Unchained Legion apparently has ties to Earth. We'll stay and help S.H.I.E.L.D. investigate those connections and search for dormant Hellire facilities waiting in the shadows." Everyone in the room nodded in understanding, and the conversation soon turned to more personal matters as they resumed their meal. The war was far from over, but at least now, they had a plan.
Radiant Garden – Spaceport; RLS Legacy:
"Are you ready for this?" Riku asked as he walked in from putting his bags up in his private cabin. After the incident with Silver and his men, Captain Amelia personally ran background checks on every member of her crew that she hired. She refused to allow a repeat of Silver's pirate mutiny. All of them had been briefed on the Daybreak Coalition in advance and sworn to secrecy. The Coalition government wasn't exactly hostile towards outsiders or even remotely isolationist, but they had enough things to deal with making sure the various member worlds stayed on good terms with each other and fighting the Hellfire Club or the Legion to just broadcast their existence to the wider galaxy.
"I've been read for a week now," Kairi answered as she looked out over the rail at the modern Gummi Ships spread out around the spaceport's four other docking bays. While travel between worlds was more common, spaceship traffic was never crowded enough to necessitate the construction of additional terminals. The Daybreak Coalition had been around for six years, but there was always something new to see wherever you went. But where they were going now was completely uncharted territory. To her knowledge, nobody in Coalition space had ever been beyond their small corner of the universe. But they would have to soon.
When Sora used the X – Blade to seal Kingdom Hearts, they all knew that the worlds would begin the process of merging back together into one whole planet. For the last six years, the worlds were all slowly but steadily moving in one particular direction. The movement was infinitesimal, unnoticeable to the people living on each world, but plainly obvious to scientists charged with observing the route, speed, and direction of the migrating worlds. Whatever source was drawing the worlds of the Coalition back towards where they had originally come from kept the suns around which they all orbited moving with them to keep the populations alive. While they'd yet to encounter any other civilizations in this corner of space, they knew it was only a matter of time before they bumped into other inhabited planets.
"Hang in there, Sora," Kairi whispered as she shook those thoughts out of her head to focus on her goal. The Legacy was gliding silently out of the docking bay and up through the gateway into Radiant Garden's atmosphere. Riku, Donald, Goofy, and Rose joined her on the deck watching the blue canyon walls surrounding the city glide silently past. Montressor-built ships like the Legacy were equipped with atmospheric shield generators that produced breathable air for its occupants while travelling through the vacuum of space. So much had changed since they were kids on the Destiny Islands, but one thing that would never change was how she and Sora felt about each other. "We're coming for you."
And with that, the action minds down. The next chapter and the epilogue will be focused on everyone's reactions to the aftermath of the last few chapters. Vanitas' team adjusts to being on Earth, Kairi and Rose get ready to head off on their trip, and Maleficent regroups after her losses and reassess her priorities. After the prequel fic Before The Storm is finished, I'll be working on Kingdom Hearts V: Balance of Power. This one will be focused on Sora and Kairi travelling across the galaxy in search of each other in the midst of the nascent conflict between Maleficent and the Unchained. She's reevaluating her priorities and decides that the Legion is a bigger threat to her operation than Xehanort ever was, and directs her focus towards destroying them and anyone else who gets in her way.
So yeah, Vanitas' team is on Earth. Expect a feelsy reunion between Cloud and Zack in the possibly near future ;). The next chapter is going to be focused on the Earth and the Coalition based characters dealing with the fallout of everything that's happened in this story. And then the Epilogue will focus on the Novus Imperator of the Unchained Legion, and the identity of Madame N.I. will finally be revealed. Beware though, for the shocker of an ending will make you anxious for the next story to come out. And just to make sure it's clear (although it will be brought up in the next chapter), the Daybreak Coalition were the ones who attacked Maleficent's hideout.
Just the epilogue left now folks. I'll have that up tomorrow. But now you've all got a clear idea of the storyline for KH5. Once I post the epilogue and timeline tomorrow, I'm going to take a day off and rest my brain before starting on the prequel Before the Storm.